Book Review: The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
I just finished The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. I find myself drawn, in general, to books dealing with college and prep school. But The Art of Fielding is different from most of the ones I’ve read because most of the main characters (actually most of the characters, period) are male, when typically I chose books centered around female characters. But seeing this book involves baseball, it piqued my curiosity. The name of the novel is derived from a fictional book-within-a-book, also called The Art of Fielding, which has basically served as a manual for both baseball and life for Henry, the main character. Henry, develops a “become one with the ball” type of philosophy which makes him a very talented shortstop, but due to his size, he is overlooked when it comes to college recruiting. His life changes when he meets Mike Schwartz at a summer baseball tournament. Mike is impressed with Henry’s fielding abilities, and arranges to have him attend his own school, Westish College, where Henry joins the baseball team, and Mike becomes Henry’s mentor. The story covers Henry’s freshman year at Westish, and then basically skips ahead to baseball season of his junior year, where the majority of the action takes place, and the 3 other main characters become central to the story.
In addition to (the fictional) Art of Fielding, another book that is significant to this novel is Moby Dick. The college president had attended Westish as a student, where one day he discovered some forgotten old papers indicating that the author Herman Melville had visited the campus. The school latched onto Melville-mania, even renaming their sports teams the Harpooners, and erecting a statue of Melville on the Quad. Needless to say, the Moby Dick and Melville allusions are countless. I haven’t even read Moby Dick, but I know they’re there. Even the names of some of the characters sound like they’re meant to recall old-time classic literature- Henry Skrimshander, Guert Affenlight, his daughter Pella Affenlight. I am sure if I’d actually read Moby Dick, there’s a lot more I would have picked up on.
The book is fairly long, but once you’re in, it keeps your interest pretty well. It changes point of view from one chapter to the next (rotating among 4 major characters), which keeps things moving. So if you’re not really “feeling” one particular chapter, just hang on for a few pages and you’ll be somewhere else. Overall, I could recommend this for anyone who enjoys sagas about interconnected relationships of lovers, friends, and family. It would probably help to like baseball, but if you don’t you aren’t necessarily going to hate the book, but many of the key story actions take place in or during baseball games.
In addition to (the fictional) Art of Fielding, another book that is significant to this novel is Moby Dick. The college president had attended Westish as a student, where one day he discovered some forgotten old papers indicating that the author Herman Melville had visited the campus. The school latched onto Melville-mania, even renaming their sports teams the Harpooners, and erecting a statue of Melville on the Quad. Needless to say, the Moby Dick and Melville allusions are countless. I haven’t even read Moby Dick, but I know they’re there. Even the names of some of the characters sound like they’re meant to recall old-time classic literature- Henry Skrimshander, Guert Affenlight, his daughter Pella Affenlight. I am sure if I’d actually read Moby Dick, there’s a lot more I would have picked up on.
The book is fairly long, but once you’re in, it keeps your interest pretty well. It changes point of view from one chapter to the next (rotating among 4 major characters), which keeps things moving. So if you’re not really “feeling” one particular chapter, just hang on for a few pages and you’ll be somewhere else. Overall, I could recommend this for anyone who enjoys sagas about interconnected relationships of lovers, friends, and family. It would probably help to like baseball, but if you don’t you aren’t necessarily going to hate the book, but many of the key story actions take place in or during baseball games.